Chapter 4

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from Chapter 4 of the 'Inside Criminal Law' lecture notes, including definitions of law, types of law, elements of a crime, criminal defenses, and constitutional safeguards.

Law

All the rules of conduct established and enforced by the custom, authority, or legislation of a group, community, or country; implies prescription (rule) and enforcement by authority.

U.S. Criminal Justice system

Exists to apply the rule of law as a means of providing social stability; those who enforce laws and those who make them are not the same.

Rule of Law

The establishment and imposition of legal processes to protect society from crime; requires laws to provide for vengeance/retribution, atonement, deterrence/prevention, treatment, and incapacitation/reparations.

Primitive and Ancient Law

Early laws (pre-2000 B.C.) used to control human conduct; justice was retaliatory, often with severe punishments, and originally the group's responsibility to keep peace.

Code of Hammurabi

Established by Babylonian King Hammurabi around 1800 B.C., a set of 282 codes regulating behavior and punishments based on personal responsibility; principle: "the strong shall not injure the weak".

Lex Talionis

A legal principle from the Code of Hammurabi meaning "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," illustrating the law of retaliation.

Common Law

Collections of rules, customs, and traditions of medieval England, created during the reign of Henry II; judge-made law common to the entire land, based on precedent.

Stare Decisis

Latin for "let the decision stand" or "stand by things settled"; the legal principle of following previous court decisions to promote fairness and consistency.

Four key elements of law (American Law)

Law is a body of rules, enacted by public officials, created in a legitimate manner, and backed by the force of the state.

Constitutional Law

Law expressed in the U.S. Constitution (supreme law of the land) and various state constitutions (supreme within state borders if they don't violate federal law).

Statutory Law

Laws or ordinances created by federal, state, and local legislatures and governing bodies; none can violate the U.S. Constitution or relevant state constitution.

Administrative Law

Rules, orders, and decisions of federal or state government administrative agencies, created by enabling legislation, with functions including rule making, investigation, enforcement, and adjudication.

Case Law and Common Law Doctrines

Judge-made law including interpretations of constitutional provisions, statutes, and administrative regulations; relies on precedent.

Precedent

A court decision that provides an example or authority for deciding subsequent cases involving similar facts.

Legal Function of the Law

To maintain social order by protecting citizens from criminal harm (to individuals and society); often results in new criminal laws for specific acts.

Social Function of the Law

To express public morality, which can sometimes lead to conflicts between local and federal values.

Criminal Law

The body of law that defines criminal offenses and prescribes punishments for their infractions; the prosecutor has the burden of proof to show guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, with penalties like prison, fines, or community punishment.

Prosecutor

The party in a criminal case who has the burden of proof, representing the state, to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Burden of proof (criminal)

The requirement that the state (prosecutor) must meet to introduce evidence or establish facts, showing the probability that a crime occurred and a particular person was involved.

Beyond a reasonable doubt

The standard used by jurors to arrive at a verdict in criminal cases; whether or not the government (prosecutor) has established guilt to such a degree.

Civil Law

Includes all types of law other than criminal law, concerned with disputes between private individuals and entities (torts); the plaintiff seeks damages or a legal remedy by a preponderance of evidence.

Torts

Private wrongs that are the concern of civil law disputes.

Plaintiff

The injured party who is bringing a lawsuit or initiating a legal action against someone else in a civil case.

Defendant (civil)

A person being accused of a wrongdoing or harm; the person being sued in court in a civil case.

Burden of proof (civil)

Rests on the party seeking damages or remedy (plaintiff), requiring proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

Preponderance of the evidence

The degree of proof required in a civil case, meaning just over 50% probability (more probable than not 50.1%).

Clear and convincing evidence

A level of proof in civil cases involving personal liability, which is more than preponderance of the evidence but less than beyond a reasonable doubt.

Suspect

An individual who is not yet under arrest, but is believed to have committed a crime.

Defendant

A person charged with a crime (in criminal cases) or a person being sued (in civil cases).

Felonies

Crimes punishable by death or imprisonment in a prison for one year or longer, generally graded by level of seriousness.

Misdemeanors

Any crime not classified as a felony, punishable by a fine or confinement in a jail up to one year, usually classified as gross or petty.

Infractions

The least serious wrongdoing, usually punishable by a fine.

Mala in se

Acts that are inherently wrong, regardless of whether they are prohibited by law (e.g., murder, sexual assault).

Mala prohibita

Acts that are made illegal by criminal statute and are not necessarily inherently wrong (e.g., prostitution, bigamy).

Corpus Delicti

Latin for 'the body of the crime'; refers to the criminal law requirement that the elements of a crime (e.g., criminal act and guilty mind) must be proven before a conviction.

Actus reus

Latin for 'criminal act'; includes acts of commission, acts of omission (intentional failure to act where there's a legal duty), or even attempted acts.

Omission

An intentional failure to act where there is a legal duty to do so, qualifying as a criminal act (actus reus).

Attempt

The act of taking substantial steps toward committing a crime while having the ability and intent to commit the crime; considered a criminal act (actus reus).

Mens Rea

Latin for 'a guilty mental state' or 'guilty mind'; a wrongful mental state as necessary as a wrongful act in establishing guilt, including elements of purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence.

Intent

A purposeful act or state of mind to commit a crime, a key component of mens rea.

Motive

The reason for committing the crime; distinct from intent, which is a required element for mens rea.

Strict Liability

Offenses that hold the defendant guilty even if intent (mens rea) to commit the offense is lacking.

Accomplice Liability

Suspects can be charged for crimes they did not actually commit if it can be proven they acted as an accomplice.

Concurrence

The requirement that there must be a simultaneous occurrence between the guilty act (actus reus) and the guilty intent (mens rea).

Causation

The requirement that the criminal act must have caused the harm suffered.

Attendant Circumstances

Facts surrounding an event that must be proved for the event to be considered a criminal act, if they are an element of the specific criminal statute.

Hate crime laws

Laws that impose greater sanctions for those who commit crimes motivated by bias.

Harm

Damages resultant from the criminal act; a specific result where a victim or society was harmed by the act.

Inchoate offenses

Conduct deemed criminal without actual harm being done (e.g., attempt, conspiracy).

Conspiracy

A plot by multiple people to commit an illegal act; an inchoate offense.

Excuse Defenses

Defenses that apply when the actor lacks the requisite mental condition to form intent for a crime (e.g., infancy, insanity, intoxication, mistake).

Justification Defenses

Defenses that apply when the defendant admits to the criminal act but argues that the act was justified (e.g., duress, self-defense, necessity, entrapment).

Infancy (defense)

An excuse defense where the person is below the legal age of majority and is argued not to understand the consequences of their actions.

Insanity (defense)

An excuse defense for criminal liability that asserts mental instability, measured by rules like M'Naghten, Substantial-capacity, or Irresistible-impulse tests.

M’Naghten rule

A common law test for criminal responsibility that relies on the defendant’s inability to distinguish right from wrong due to a mental disease or defect.

Substantial-capacity test (ALI/MPC test)

A test for insanity stating a person is not responsible for criminal behavior if they had no awareness of wrongdoing or were unable to control their actions due to mental disease or defect.

Irresistible-impulse test

A test for the insanity defense where the defendant, even if they knew their action was wrong, must establish that they were unable to resist the urge to commit the crime due to a mental condition.

Intoxication (defense)

An excuse defense where the defendant claims that taking intoxicants rendered them unable to form the requisite intent to commit a criminal act.

Voluntary intoxication

An intoxication defense where the defendant was so intoxicated that mens rea was negated.

Involuntary intoxication

An intoxication defense where someone is forced to ingest or is injected with an intoxicating substance.

Mistake of fact

An excuse defense where the defendant mistakenly commits a crime due to a misunderstanding of the facts (e.g., belief in consensual sex where it was not).

Mistake of Law

An excuse defense rarely allowed, valid only if the defendant can prove the law was not published or reasonably known, or they relied on an erroneous official statement of the law.

Duress (defense)

A justification defense where unlawful pressure induces one to perform an illegal act, often involving a threat of serious bodily harm or death that is greater than the harm caused by the crime, immediate, inescapable, and not attributable to the defendant's involvement.

Self-Defense

A justification defense providing the legally recognized privilege to protect one’s self or property from injury by another, using only force reasonably necessary.

Duty to retreat

The requirement that someone claiming self-defense must prove they took reasonable steps to avoid the conflict that resulted in the use of deadly force, if a reasonable opportunity to retreat existed.

Necessity (defense)

A justification defense where the defendant asserts that circumstances required the commission of an illegal act, and the court weighs the harm caused by the crime against the harm that would have occurred otherwise (with murder as an exception).

Entrapment (defense)

A justification defense the defendant claims they were induced by the police to commit an act or crime that they would otherwise not have committed.

Substantive Criminal Law

Law that defines the rights and duties of individuals with respect to one another and defines the acts that the government will punish (e.g., robbery, burglary).

Procedural Criminal Law

Law that defines the manner in which the rights and duties of individuals will be enforced, such as those covering arrest, search and seizure (e.g., Miranda Warnings).

Miranda Warnings

Procedural safeguards drawn from the Bill of Rights, designed to protect the constitutional rights of individuals during criminal proceedings.

Bill of Rights

The first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution (ratified 1791), five of which (1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th) address freedoms or rights in the criminal justice system.

14th Amendment

Ratified in 1868, it significantly affects the U.S. Criminal Justice System by extending the Bill of Rights to the states, ensuring due process and equal protection of the laws.

4th Amendment

Protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures.

5th Amendment

Guarantees that a person cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property without "due process" and protects against self-incrimination and double jeopardy.

6th Amendment

Guarantees a speedy and public trial by a jury, the right to confront witnesses, and the right to counsel.

8th Amendment

Prohibits excessive bails, fines, and cruel/unusual punishments.

Due Process

A constitutional requirement (from 5th and 14th Amendments) that the government must not act unfairly or arbitrarily, encompassing both procedural and substantive aspects.

Procedural Due Process

The constitutional requirement that the law must be carried out in a fair and orderly manner.

Substantive Due Process

The constitutional requirement that laws used in accusing and convicting persons of crimes must be fair.

Victim's Rights

Rights intended to give victims a say in the criminal case, often established through legislative action like the federal Crime Victims Rights Act of 2004, including the right to be informed, present, and heard.